Margate Caves to become block of flats!

Written by Matt B · first published 29/07/2010

Margate Caves are set to become a block of flats if planning application F/TH/10/0546 get's the go ahead.

However were the caves not closed by TDC due to being structurally unsound? How can flats be safe on top of unsound caves?

(I'm not exactly break news with this as Michael Child covered the planning application earlier this month and it was mentioned by Claire Blackwell in the What in particular do you think TDC could do to help reinvigorate Margate? post.)

In case you never get to see the caves vortigernstudies.org.uk has this to say:

The Margate Caves are a most extraordinary curiosity. There are 20-30 showcaves in Britain, but one would hardly expect to find one in this sleepy corner of Kent, where nothing much seems changed since the 1950s. However, this town, where most visitors to and from the continent normally rush through, has not one, but two! There is Margate Caves, and its neighbour, the Shell Grotto.

and hotelara.com mentions them thusly:

Close by to the grotto are the Margate Caves another delightful mystery. The caves are man-made but, by whom and when, no one seems to know. Some argue they are over 1000 years old others that they date from Georgian times and were built as some eccentric's folly. Margate Caves consists of a steep underground tunnel that leads to a circular chamber. Beyond this is another passage leading to a rectangular chamber. Some interesting cave paintings exist drawn from the time of their discovery in the 18th century.

I would try to link you to it but all I did was cash the page last time I tried to do that.

Why must we try to build flats everywhere nice?

Think you can do better? · read more items categorised Thanet · Don't miss a thing: Subscribe Today · Help: what's a feed? · This site is operated on set principles of policy and disclosure read them here

Add Comment

Please note that while email addresses may be given via this form they are not shown to anyone but the editor. This change is retrospective and has hidden all email addresses so that people wishing anonymity may have it.

This item is closed, it's not possible to add new comments to it or to vote on it

If you have a blog or other website of your own leaving the URL in this form will create a "do follow" link for Joined Up Blogging at the top of your comment.